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Aid Effectiveness Network news - Newsletter - November 2007

Highlights

Mutual Accountability

Strengthening Mutual Accountability Mechanisms at the International Level : Final agreement to undertake the study on existing mutual accountability mechanisms was reached at the Joint Venture Managing for Development Results meeting in Paris on 16 October, but a number of countries have some concerns. A small and experienced team of consultants have been contracted on behalf of the JV led by the UK, Spain and Sweden. The purpose is to undertake a study of existing accountability mechanisms at international and regional level so as to get a more complete picture of what is taking place to promote mutual accountability. The study will consider strengths and weaknesses of existing mechanisms, opportunities and challenges and how mutual accountability at the regional and international level could be enhanced. It should consider intergovernmental organisations, both formal and informal, independent bodies and civil society mechanisms and the linkages between international and country levels. For more information contact Katja Jobes, e-mail (k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk ).

Aid Effectiveness

Strengthening the Poverty Focus of the Paris Declaration through Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment :

Evidence Gathering: AE & Gender, Rights and Exclusion : This evidence gathering consultancy led by DFID/Irish Aid and Nordic + partners on behalf of Gender Net has now begun. OPM & SDDirect were the successful bidders. The terms of reference outline that 6 in-depth country case studies in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Uganda, Kenya and Sierra Leone and a series of complementary good practice mini case studies will be undertaken as part of this work. Field work will take place between now and early January and will include looking at gender and budget support. Draft reports are due end January. The aim is to generate an evidence base, build support among Paris Declaration stakeholders and provide practical recommendations for strengthening the focus on gender rights and exclusion for the 3rd High Level Forum and beyond. The research findings will be presented at the Dublin + 1 workshop scheduled for mid March 2008, hosted by DFID. This work complements similar research being undertaken by UNIFEM & the EU in Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal & Suriname and also by the Irish on Joint assistance strategies and cross cutting issues. For further information please contact Kemi Williams, e-mail (k-williams@dfid.gov.uk ) or Katja Jobes, e-mail (k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk ).

A Rich Menu for the Poor; Food for Thought on Effective Aid Policies: Earlier this year, Mr Bert Koenders, minister for development cooperation of the Netherlands, received the first copy of a collection of essays entitled ‘A rich menu for the poor; food for thought on effective aid policies’. The collection is produced by the Effectiveness and Quality Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. Each of the thirteen essays deals with a subject relating to the current debate on more effective aid policies. Readers are invited to submit their contributions to the debate; their conclusions and recommendations which will be integrated into the collection. The aim is for a learning platform on effective aid to develop. Every month, the debate will focus on one of the essays, and a statement will be put forward for debate. You are kindly invited to participate in the debates. The initial results of the debate will be sent to participants on request. For more information or for submitting contributions please contact Leen Boer, e-mail (Leen.boer@minbuza.nl ).

UK to Double Aid to Fight Poverty in Burma: The Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander, recently announced that the UK will increase its aid for the poorest people in Burma from £9 million this year to £18 million by 2010. The announcement comes after peaceful protests led by monks and pro-democracy groups were suppressed by the military regime in September. Mr Alexander called on the regime to start genuine dialogue towards peace and reconciliation between the military, opposition groups and ethnic groups; respect human rights; be more accountable and responsive; and ensure proper economic management of the country.

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Evaluation

Evaluation of the Paris Declaration: DFID Case Study Begins: From the outset of the Paris Declaration being signed in March 2005, it was agreed that, in addition to a formal monitoring process, a joint evaluation would be undertaken to provide evidence on the relevance and effectiveness of the Paris Declaration’s core principles. The first phase of this evaluation is now underway, and is due to be completed in early 2008, prior to the Accra High Level Forum. A more challenging outcome-level evaluation will take place in 2010. In keeping with the Paris Declaration principles, the DFID case study has been designed to be largely country-led. Participants are self-selected. Ten partner countries have agreed to undertake evaluations (Bangladesh, Bolivia, Mali, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia). Eleven development partners – including DFID – have undertaken to be donor case studies for the evaluation (AfDB, Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Netherlands, New Zealand, UK and UNDP/UNEG). The DFID case study, which began in October 2007, will assess how effectively DFID has implemented its commitments under the Paris Declaration; and explain the barriers and constraints to effective implementation. Our progress will be assessed under the three themes of Commitment, Capacity and Incentives. The study will involve collecting views from our partner countries who are undertaking their own ‘country case studies’ in this evaluation (Bangladesh, Bolivia, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia). The study will be completed in February 2008. For further information contact Alison Girdwood, e-mail (a-girdwood@dfid.gov.uk )

West Bengal Country Progamme Evaluation (CPE): DFID’s Evaluation Department has published the latest in the programme of CPEs -West Bengal. The programme is a good model of how a relatively compact portfolio can play a strong influencing role in promoting and delivering reforms, and strengthen capacity to deliver positive outcomes for the poor. The programme has scaled up very rapidly, from £7m in 2002/03 to a projected £45m by 2006/07, enabled by factors such as planning a suite of ambitious programmes, grasping reform opportunities presented by a new Chief Minister, and responding flexibly and quickly to requests for support in new reform areas, such as restructuring public sector enterprises. The findings in the independent study are available in the final report. For more information contact Lynn Quinn, e-mail (l-quinn@dfid.gov.uk )

Nepal Country Programme Evaluation (CPE) 2001-2006: The CPE for Nepal finds that DFID was influential in keeping Nepal’s conflict on the international agenda and instrumental in evolving conflict sensitive approaches to allow development work to continue in conflict affected areas. In terms of development impact the report recognises that DFID and its implementing partners have achieved a wide level of outreach and delivery of benefits despite the difficult security situation. In areas such as livelihoods, forestry, rural roads, water and sanitation, health and education, services have reached rural populations in 74 out of 75 districts in Nepal, over half of whom live over 3 hours from the nearest road. At the same time, DFID supported a longer term reform agenda, with sector approaches successfully pursued in health (led by DFID) and education. This demonstrates that sector wide approaches are possible within a fragile states environment, particularly where Government ministries have technical capacity and a reform agenda is agreed. DFID Nepal and DFID’s fragile states team have committed to using the CPE recommendations to inform future strategic planning. For more information contact Kerstin Hinds, e-mail (k-hinds@dfid.gov.uk )

Update on Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact (IACDI): The Secretary of State announced the Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact Committee (IACDI) during the debate on International Development (Reporting and Transparency) Act on 15 November. The Committee will first meet on 6 December. More information on the Committee members and their terms of reference is available on the website at www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/evaluation.asp 

Stakeholders on International Initiatives on Impact Evaluation: In the margins of the annual meetings in Washington, the World Bank and the Center for Global Development hosted meetings of stakeholders on international initiatives on impact evaluation including the 3IE initiative due to be launched early in 2008 by CGD and others. These were well attended and there were promising signs of closer collaboration of the different parties in the Bank, the Foundations and donors. Nick York attended for DFID and we are supporting both the new donor network on impact evaluation (now with a stronger developing country membership) and 3IE. The World Bank (PREM and IEG) are hosting a conference on impact evaluation in Washington in January (15/16) which DFID and the Dutch are co-sponsoring. For further information contact Nick York, e-mail (n-york@dfid.gov.uk )

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Upcoming Seminars and Events

Where Voice and Accountability Meet – Citizens, The State and Good Enough Governance: A presentation by ODI (Marta Foresti and Bhavna Sharma) on its work to date for DFID and other DAC members on designing an Evaluation Framework for analysing the effectiveness of Voice and Accountability interventions/initiatives recently took place. There was also a session on the same subject for NGO/CSO attendees. For more information contact Jane Gardner, e-mail (j-gardner@dfid.gov.uk )

Recent Seminars and Events

OECD DAC Gendernet Meeting: This meeting was held in Paris on 6-7 November and focused on Gender & Aid Effectiveness to develop a coordinated influencing strategy in preparation for the Third High Level Forum. The purpose was to ensure gender is mainstreamed into the implementation of the Paris Declaration to strengthen the poverty focus and ultimately the results. For more information contact Katja Jobes, e-mail ( k-jobes@dfid.gov.uk )

Moving Beyond Aid towards Development: The Roundtable Discussion on 'Moving Beyond Aid Towards Development' recently took place at ODI at which there was good participation from across the Whitehall departments. There was also good participation from people outside government bringing a range of perspectives from both academia and NGOs including conflict and security, migration, environment, development, as well as broader experience across OECD countries of the challenges of implementing this agenda. There is likely to be a roundtable report circulated to all participants. Those who would like to see a copy of the roundtable report of for more information please contact Tim Palmer, e-mail (t-palmer@dfid.gov.uk )

Democracy and Development: The Effective States Team team co-funded (with WBI) a conference on Democracy for Development which took place in October. The key objectives of the conference were to i) develop a shared understanding about the relationships between democracy and development; ii) to better understand how democracy is evolving in developing countries and how it is experienced in practice; iii) to share lessons of roles for internal and external actors; and iv) to contribute to international policy debates. For more information contact Ranjan Sen, e-mail ( r-sen@dfid.gov.uk )

The co-ordination of the Aid Effectiveness network, including the AE newsletter, is undertaken by Nikki Cairns and Catherine Ferry on behalf of the Country Led Approaches and Results (CLEAR) Team. To keep abreast of the latest in aid effectiveness, please e-mail Nikki, n-cairns@dfid.gov.uk  or Catherine, c-ferry@dfid.gov.uk  who will add your name to the mailing list. Please also let us know of any news you have which relates to Aid Effectiveness for publishing in the newsletter. Catherine Ferry and Nikki Cairns